1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device such as a power device which can be turned off by controlling a gate, and a method for operating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor), which is described in 1990 IEEE PESC (Proceedings of Power Electronics Specialists Conference), Jun. 10-15, 1990, pp. 9-16, and a BRT (Base Resistance Controlled Thyristor), which is described in 1991 IEEE ISPSD (Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs), Apr. 22-24, 1991, pp. 138-141, have recently been employed as a power device capable of being turned on/turned off by controlling a gate.
However, the IGBT and BRT have the following drawbacks. Though the IGBT can be turned on/turned off at high speed, its on-state voltage is increased in a large-current region. Though the on-state voltage of the BRT is not so high in a large-current region, its turn-off time is long and its turn-off capability is low.